I’ve been asked about the managing of test configurations. In the sample below I have two test configurations set up as I add test cases they are automatically assigned both test configurations.

You can have multiple test configurations set to be the default. Which means all test cases are assigned these default configurations.

When I click on a Test Case then the icon Configurations I can override the default and remove one or both configurations from the selected test case.

You can select all your test cases in a test suite (using the std Microsoft selection hotkey) and then click Configurations to update a bunch at once.

I just added a new configuration named My Added Configuration. When I select the test case and click Configurations the Select Test Configurations opens. I then have to clickAll configurations and my view looks like display below:

If you do not click All configurations you will not see the newly added configuration(s). It’s a trick I know why not just show them all. Hey, were tester’s we should be enjoying the challenge!

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On Oct. 12th Microsoft has published a hot fix for issues that were causing Test Manager to crash and memory leaks that caused data and productivity loss. After downloading the hot fix I noticed that in the Test Case iterations section that are new buttons and bugs fixed. See what I’ve found so far below:

1. You can now delete test case iterations without crashing MTM. And working with data in the iterations seems smoother.

2. You will now have a “Remove parameter” button which allows you to remove a parameter from you iterations and/or test steps.

3. You will also have a “Rename parameter” button which allows you to rename a parameter in your test case iterations and/or shared steps.

4. Last you will have a “Delete parameter” button which allows you to delete a parameter in your test case iterations and/or shared steps. Deletions with this button only removes the @ sign from the parameter in the steps. You can still highlight the parameter in the step and click the delete button on your keyboard, this removes all instances of the parameter in your test case.

Note: shared step parameters display in associated test cases however, you can only Rename, Remove or Delete parameters from within the shared step itself. At the moment you are able to select the shared step parameter and proceed with selecting the test case remove, delete or rename button and proceed again as if executing the button feature right to the end. The action does not actually work!

Note: the issue with deleting a parameter in a shared step and the associated test cases not being updated still exists. This hot fix does not include a fix for this.

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How can the other team roles more effectively communicate with the testing team?

What does the test team need to know to complete the testing effort?

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Duplication of tests for configurations does have a flow that you need to be aware of …

Test Configurations have to be set to active and selected in the Test Plan properties.

Test Configurations set up prior to creating test cases are automatically duplicated for each configuration assigned to the test plan.

Note: you have no ability to indicate which configurations affect which test cases. Therefore you will have to use the test case run status of “blocked”. If you leave “active” a tester would be able to run.

Adding a new test configurations to an existing Test Plan will not affect any existing Test Suites. ( I believe this is a bug and have reported it to Microsoft) However, if I add a new test suite and associate existing or new test cases to that suite all the Test Plan test configurations are used.

When I get an answer on whether this the correct behaviour or if there is a work around will post it.

If you need to test against different test configurations you are going to love Microsoft Test Manager.

Test Configurations are different setups that any application requires testing against. Example: Microsoft Test Manager would have been tested against different operating systems like XP, Vista, or Windows7. A web application may require testing against different browsers like IE7, IE8, Fire Fox, Chrome or Safari.

The ability to set up test configurations is only limited to your needs. One of the best features is the ability of Microsoft Test Manager to simulate a duplication of test cases for test configurations assigned to a test plan for test runs only.

It does require management to some extend however;

it does save your team time in creating duplicate test cases or excel spreadsheets of what configurations will or have been tested.

it is only really one instance of the test case so an changes affect all instances in the test run.

the test plan documents what configurations will been tested and by which test cases.

There is significant savings to the test team for this feature to be one of the top.

Test Plan – test case shows once only.

Test tab >Run Tests – test case is shown for each test configuration set up in our test plan.

Over the next few blogs I will tell you more about Test Configurations and how they affect test cases and test runs.